Dartfish Running Gait Analysis

I decided to have a running gait analysis done before I got too far into the run/walk program because I knew I know I still had a lot of strength deficiencies and compensations.  But, I wanted an idea of what and where I needed to focus my efforts and how bad (or good!) my running form looked to a professional.

It was pretty simple - I warmed up on the treadmill and then ran for about 3-4 minutes while they video taped me from the front, sides and back.   From there, the trainer was able to analyze my various angles and strides and determine where things might be going wrong.

All in all, my running form is pretty solid.  I am a  forefoot striker, good knee tracking, soft landing and no pronation issues. 

Where it falls apart is with my hips. (OK, is anyone surprised? Not really, right?)  Both hips show strength issues, and on top of that, my operated hip shows a lack of flexibility/ROM.

This shows what's going on with my hips as I land.  In the top left, you can see that my right leg (operated hip) tracks almost to the center of my body, as opposed to underneath my hip (red star).   My left leg does as well a little, but not nearly as much as the right.  The screen capture is too small to see the actual measurements, so just take my word on it.   This is all hip strength related, specifically strength in the lateral (side-to-side) direction.

In the bottom right, you can also see that when I strike with my left leg, my right hip drops.  This is hip and core strength and stability.    Planks, side planks, bridges.

The other interesting thing the trainer noticed was that my stride on my operated side is more shallow - I don't get as much hip flexion nor hamstring activity (less of a knee bend) as I do on my "good" side.   He believes this is a ROM, hip flexor issue.

The non-operated hip from the side:

The operated hip:

All in all, I really got a lot out of the gait analysis.  I want to repeat the analysis in 4-5 months and see if I have made improvements.  I received a set of exercises to work on and a few tweaks to the PT exercises I have already been doing to work on the specific deficiencies.

The Dartfish program is easy to use.  I have a copy of all my images and videos on a CD that I can review at any time.